Between
by NDebN
Summary: What do you do when you get lost inside your soul? Where do you go when love's gone?  Why did you say nothing at all? Those are thoughts Ryoma has when he finds the horrible truth. Warnings: Angst


**Disclaimer: **No Prince of Tennis is not mine, and it's doubtful that it will ever become mine.**  
Pairings: **really that would just ruin everything if I told you that XD  
**Warnings:** not sure if this counts as AU but I doubt I'll make any references to the current series Manga or Anime. Any other warnings should be ANGST.  
**Summary:** What do you do when you get lost inside your soul? Where do you go when love's gone?  
Why did you say nothing at all? Those are thoughts Ryoma has when he finds the horrible truth. Warnings: Angst**  
A/N:** This is an idea that has been in the back of my mind for a long time, not sure if I keep it as a one-shot or continue it. I'll decide that later on, this will hop a lot between past and present in the beginning and it might make no sense in the beginning just keep reading, you'll understand. But it's angsty and drama-ish. Not sure if I have anything funny in this story I don't think so. I was listing to break-up songs-ish, actually just two when I wrote this.  
Vienna Teng – Between  
Anouk – For bitter and worse  
I love those songs but they are so sad, and this story came to me when listening to Between, which is why I gave it this title.

Present: in normal tekst  
Past: _in italics_

**X**

**X**

**X**

**Between**

A young man stepped out of the plane, it was a long time he had been here in Japan, he had grown, became older and maybe even wiser. His golden cat eyes blazed with a fire that could never die, there was one day though that it had died for a while. It all had happened here in Japan.

XxX

_It had been another hard week for him, but now he could go home. Back to his love where he was meant to be. The key in the apartment, slowly opening the door. He would surprise his lover, he wasn't meant to come back until tomorrow._

_He put his suitcase down in the hallway. He crept through the house, his lover was sure to be still sleeping this early. A muffled voice alerted him that he might be awake already. The next thing happened in a flash, the voice became louder and it wasn't talking, it were moans. _

_Surprised and shocked, his lover wasn't one to please himself. He got closer to the bedroom and was aware of a second voice. The door was opened ever so slightly, but enough to see two figures. He pressed a hand to his mouth to prevent himself from screaming. His hands became wet with tears, he could burst in, but he couldn't he was frozen._

_Tears streaming down his cheeks he backed away from the door. He didn't wanted to hear more he didn't want to see more. He scribbled a note, took of his ring and placed it next on to the note. He got his suitcase and walked out of the house._

_Since that day he never looked back, and for a while his eyes looked dead. No that's not right, the dead had more life in their eyes then he had at that point._

XxX

The young man got his suitcase and made his way out of the airport. It had been 3 years since he had left Japan and chose to become a professional tennis player. All in all he had done alright for himself, he was the current number one. His parents who fully retired in Japan had been bugging him to take a vacation and come to visit, he decided to indulge into his parent's wishes and take a short vacation.

He got a cab and made his way to his old house, the house that held so many tennis related memories. But this cab ride also felt like a memory, he decided it was because of the rain.

XxX

_After a long walk he found himself on the steps of a house and pressed the doorbell._

"_Echizen? What are you doing out in the rain?" came the surprised question._

"_Syuusuke, who is it?" came a voice from out of the house._

"_Ah you have company I should go." Ryoma muttered the answer._

"_It's Echizen." Said Fuji back to the voice, "Don't be silly come in." Fuji turned around and dragged the wet Ryoma into the house._

"_Echizen?" Ryoma could remember that voice anywhere._

"_What do you do when it's all over?" Ryoma's voice cracked as he asked the question to nobody really, new tears streaming over his cheeks, his eyes lifeless. He fell to his knees, his hands in front of his eyes. "The tears won't stop." Ryoma managed to get the words out of his mouth._

"_It's alright Echizen." Hushed Fuji as he hugged Ryoma._

XxX

The cab stopped in front of his house, he paid the driver and made his way to the front door.

"Good luck on your next tournament." Ryoma heard the driver say before he drove off.

He opened the door with his key, the inside hadn't changed a thing since high school.

"I'm home." Said Ryoma.

The sudden footsteps surprised him. "Ryoma." Smiled his mother and gave him a hug, his father just ruffled through his hair.

He was happy to be home, his mother was hovering and his father was throwing insults, yes it really felt like old times.

XxX

"_Aren't you going to answer." Asked Fuji as Ryoma's cell phone rang for the thousand time that hour._

"_No." Ryoma got the phone and turned it off._

"_What happened?" asked Tezuka, Ryoma didn't hear the question he was staring off into something horrible, the images didn't leave his mind for a second._

"_Echizen?" Tezuka asked again._

"_Yes?" Ryoma turned his attention to Tezuka. Tezuka shuddered slightly because of the lifeless that Ryoma's eyes held, this wasn't the cocky freshman he trained once. This was a broken teenager, no not a teenager, he was eighteen already._

_What happened?" Tezuka tried again._

"_I would like to know that too." Said Ryoma, "Where did I go wrong?" New tears brimmed in his eyes, his voice was steady. But the tears indicated it wouldn't take long before his voice would crack._

"_Why don't you go lay down in our bed." Said Fuji that helped up Ryoma and lead the way to his and Tezuka's bedroom._

"_Take some rest, talking will come later." Said Fuji that wanted to close the door._

"_Thank you Fuji-sempai." Ryoma lay down on the bed closing his eyes only to be trapped in his life's nightmare again._

XxX

Even his room had stayed the same, minus the boxes, "He must have send them here." Ryoma told himself.

He opened a box the first thing that grabbed his eye was a frame with a picture inside, "There once was a time I was sure of the bond between us." Sighed Ryoma as his hand trailed over the picture.

"Times change." He decided as he opened the frame and took out the picture. Seeing all the memories hadn't pained him as much as he had feared.

"Are you alright Ryoma-san?" asked a familiar voice behind him.

"Ah I am fine, Nanako." Ryoma turned half around to smile at her.

"You need help?"

"No," Ryoma shook his head, "It's really okay."

"Okay I'll leave you to it then." Nanako smiled at her nephew, she didn't say it but she was worried when Ryoma disappeared to the USA to fully pursue his professional career.

XxX

"_Are you sure? You can stay here longer if you want." Said Fuji._

"_Ah." Agreed Tezuka with Fuji._

"_It's time for me to move on, I don't think I can bare it any longer to stay." Ryoma managed to smile._

"_Shouldn't you say something to…" the name died on Fuji's lips, as he saw Ryoma shake his head as a no._

_Fuji made a move to say something but Tezuka took a hold of his wrist and shook his head slowly._

"_Do not get careless, Echizen." Said Tezuka._

"_Echizen, Just know if you really need a friend you can come back anytime." Said Fuji as he hugged Ryoma for the last time._

"_Thank you." Some of the life had returned over the days he had stayed with them, "Both of you, Thank you." _

XxX

"I should give them a call that I'm in Japan." Said Ryoma to himself and picked up the phone next to him leaving the boxes alone, the boxes didn't hold his interest.

"Fuji, I'm in Japan." Said Ryoma into his phone.

"I told you two I was coming, why do you act surprised." Chuckled Ryoma.

Ryoma's face turned serious, "Ah, yes I found it." Ryoma took a deep breath. "I'll go, they went through the trouble to invite me so I should at least give them my regards."

"Thank you Fuji. I'll see you two then." Ryoma closed the phone, he had seen the two a few times when they came to watch his tournaments. Fuji made it his personal thing to call him at least once a week and when Fuji was really unable to call Tezuka would call him to check up on him.

I his hand he held two things, one was a invitation to a wedding.

_Momoshiro Takeshi & Tachibana Ann  
invite you to their wedding_

The other was the note he'd written years ago, the note he left for his ex lover to find.

_What do you do when you get lost inside your soul?  
Where do you go when love's gone?  
Why did you say nothing at all?  
Goodbye._

A part of him was wondering why he was invited, another part just thought it would be good to have this final closure.

XxX

The wedding was beautiful, just like a wedding should be. Ryoma wasn't sad, it had been three years, he had time to get over it. Ann was beautiful and she seemed happy.

At the reception Ryoma wanted to leave, but both Tezuka and Fuji dragged him to congratulate the happy couple.

"Ryoma?" was the surprised look on Momoshiro's face.

"Thank you for coming Echizen." Smiled Ann.

"No problem, you look beautiful." Smiled Ryoma softly.

"Thank you." She smiled, she nudged her husband, "Go talk in the garden."

"I'm not sure whether to kill you or hug you, Ann." Smiled Fuji when Momoshiro and Ryoma walked to the garden.

"I understand you don't like me much, but I'm happy you brought Echizen here." Said Ann softly.

"Not like you, that's a understatement." Hissed Fuji.

"Syuusuke." Said Tezuka taking a hold of Fuji's arm to calm him down, "do not misunderstand, Ryoma came here because he wanted to not because we made him go."

"I'm sorry." Ann said.

"I wouldn't have came if Ryoma didn't want to go." Finished Fuji.

"I never meant to hurt him." Said Ann.

"Well you did." Said Fuji and turned away.

XxX

Momoshiro was looking for the words, but nothing in his head would do.

"Congratulations Momoshiro." Said Ryoma with a smile.

"I'm sorry." Said Momoshiro, "If I could do it all again…"

"You wouldn't change a single thing." Finished Ryoma for him, "it's fine really."

"I didn't want you to find out that way." Said Momoshiro honestly tears falling from his eyes.

"I know." Said Ryoma softly, "We were slowly growing a distance between us back then. I only saw it later. I didn't know what went wrong."

"Me neither, I did love you, you know." Said Momoshiro.

"I know, but it wasn't enough." Said Ryoma, "I hope you'll be happy."

"Thank you." Momoshiro's tears were still falling, "I hope you'll find happiness too, congratulations on your last victory."

"Ah, Thank you." Ryoma turned away and he let the tears fall from his eyes, as long as Momoshiro wouldn't see he was fine, but Ann saw when Ryoma walked past her. She didn't want to see that she'd hurt someone, she turned to where Momoshiro was to comfort him.

"You alright Ryoma?" asked Fuji, Ryoma nodded but the tears were telling enough.

"I'm leaving." Said Ryoma and Tezuka and Fuji followed him out.

XxX

"It seems he's alright." Said Fuji.

"hn." Answered Tezuka.

"It's been a while since then." Smiled Fuji.

"We should get to bed." Said Tezuka.

"I don't want to see him get hurt again." Said Fuji as he wrapped Tezuka's arms around himself.

"Ah, me neither." Answered Tezuka who put his chin on Fuji's neck, there they stood a while watching Ryoma sleep until they finally retreated to the bedroom and leaving Ryoma asleep on the couch.

Ryoma dreamed strange dreams, about baby karupin's and grand slams he had to win. Somewhere in between he let go of all the pain and regret.

**To be continued…**

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**X**

**A/N:** Well it's so sad T_T that's what I felt when writing this. But somehow I do feel better when I written it. Not sure yet if I should leave it like this or that I should continue this, well anyway I hope you enjoyed it.

Leave a review if you have anything to say about it ^^


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